Subject: Comment on File Number 4-637

January 10, 2013

Securities and Exchange Comm.

Dear Securities and Exchange Comm.,

Iím writing to urge the commissionís prompt approval of rules requiring public disclosure of political spending by corporations. Disclosure is vital to the SECís responsibility to ensure that investors have the information they need to make sound decisions about when and where to put their money. Shareholders also have a right to know how companies in their investment portfolios are investing that money, particularly when the spending falls outside the companyís normal business activity.
Beyond that, when our democracy allows a one-way valve for money, as in corporation's owners lack of liability for incorporated actions, we've got a right, and a duty, to ask for, and extract, something in return, for the common good. Revealing political donations is the least of what we should extract.